My Introduction to Brown Bird: A Life-Changing Musical Experience

“That’s just the waves slamming against the topsides’ sound.

Don’t let the ever-rolling motion go and get you down.

Don’t let it shake your steady thread-cutting hand.

Keep stealing ribbons from the steel and giving hell.”

I didn’t want to go. I was coerced. All I wanted to do was sit at home and be antisocial. At least that was the case on this particular night. She practically begged me, or demanded, maybe a more apt expression. She wanted to go but didn’t want to go alone. That didn’t necessarily make me her only option; however, we were dating, and music was a common thread in our relationship. 

Neither she nor I had ever heard of the band. They were on tour promoting their new album Salt for Salt. I’m not sure where Jeanne had heard about them. Alex De Vore’s column in the Recorder probably. She said it was a show we couldn’t miss; passing on Brown Bird would have been akin to purchasing the $18 ticket to Woodstock, being in the area, and deciding to stay home to watch Let’s Make a Deal.

When Jeanne and I arrived several people were sitting outside around a fire. The show was at High Mayhem; a recording studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico. And between the two of us, we only recognized a handful of people. There weren’t many familiar faces. The members of the band Cloacas were all there, they recorded at High Mayhem. I was at least acquainted with them. 

As people started herding inside Jeanne and I followed. We found a seat inside, a swing hanging twenty feet at least from the ceiling. Wide enough only for the two of us. There were bean bag chairs, stools, carpets, blankets, and benches scattered around the studio, in front of us, fiddling with a variety of instruments, were three unfamiliar faces: David Lamb, MorganEve Swain, and her cousin (I can’t recall his name, he only toured with them, and only on occasion). David Lamb and MorganEve Swain were Brown Bird.

“I tried to be good, I was a failure

So, I took to taking all the good men down

It wasn’t hard to do, I just huffed and puffed and blew

Until all the two shoes scattered underground.”

David played the guitar, banjo, and drums simultaneously to either of the two string instruments, respectively. Lamb wrote most of the band's music. David Lamb's wife, MorganEve Swain, played the fiddle and the cello. They started the set with, “Finger’s to the Bone,” before the song ended I knew it would have been a costly life mistake to be at home watching Let’s Make a Deal. Brown Bird instantly became my favorite band and would remain my favorite, despite David Lamb’s passing due to Leukemia on April 5, 2014. David. MorganEve and Brown Bird changed everything I thought I knew about music. I genuinely felt as if I were hearing music for the first time. And, for someone whose life has been largely influenced by music since birth, that was a big deal.